The problem I have, and failed to express properly, is that we are governed by whatever the populist media thinks the government should do. This is what has lead to all three mainstream political parties bending over backwards to appease the editorials in newspapers like the Daily Mail. This is (IMHO of course) a doomed tactic.

There are a lot of similarities between the UK and US. Over here we have a very popular National Health Service which, if you ever speak to its users and patients, provides a fantastic service free at the point of delivery. However in the media it is under constant criticism which is slowly translating into weirder and weirder government decisions relating to it. The public love it, the popular right-wing media hates it, the government listens to the media.

This is the madness I was trying to rail against.

The greatest risk comes in electing a politician to a four year term of office. You may, during the election campaign, find a great potential representative who supports all the policies you want. However 12 months later it s/he may well be diametrically opposed as a result of media pressure. This is not (IMHO again) what democracy should be about.

In the UK, while we have (notionally) three major parties it is no longer that clear cut. We have a Labour party which is broadly following the Conservative ideals of the Thatcher years, and we have a Conservative party which has become enormously “left wing, liberal” in order to woo voters away from the Labour party. The Liberal Democrat party has, broadly, remained true to its “values” but even still, no one ever votes for them.

I think I mostly disagree with your conflation of “media” with “public opinion”. Again, it could be a States thing. Over here, these are by no means the same thing. Mass media in the US is run by corporate interests, which are nearly never in the public interest.